The final school bell just rang, much like my telephone did less than twenty-four hours ago. And again, after this bell I will find myself talking to Touya.

"You ready to go?" He grabs me from behind, his right arm wrapping around my torso and latching onto my left.

I laugh. "Yeah, just let me get my things together..." I open my desk and take out my Advanced Kanji workbook, my History book, and my Trigonometry book and notebook. "Okay. Let's go!" He smiles at me, before turning and leaving the classroom. I follow.

Once we're out on the road, he starts up a conversation about the weird sub we had for Phys. Ed. "I mean, have you ever seen hair that long? And she wears sunglasses even indoors."

I heartily agree. "I know, she sure was strange!" I give him an ingratiating smile. "I like our usual teacher though, don't' you? He's very understanding about my asthma."

He ruffles my hair. I squirm away and giggle, but he catches me and rubs my head for so long it makes my hair stick out like crazy. I try to straighten it, using the window of a barbershop as a makeshift mirror. "Come on," he says as he drags me the next few windows down to the ice cream shop.

We sit down on the stools by the window, far away from everyone else. Touya chose the spot. I sit, and he plops down next to me. Then leaning his elbows on the window ledge conspiratorially, he looks over at me and began.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you."

"Mm-hmm," I mumble through a mouthful of sundae.

"It's about... It's about what happened at the dance last week."

I look up. Not surprised of course, I knew it all along. Swallowing, I reply, "Yeah? What about it?"

"That, well, that kiss..."

Ha-hah. I knew it. I blush just like he expected me to. He must have taken that as a reply, because he continues without my input.

"I just wondered, what exactly was behind it. For you," he adds, "What... what did that kiss mean to you?"

I sit stymied. I knew we'd have to discuss it, but I never thought he would ask something like that. I start to blush even more, but eventually get up my courage. I'm not going to lie to him.

"It... it was wonderful. I loved it and I'll never take it back."

"Well then," he says, strangely enough, grinning, "would you be willing to do it again?"

I almost choke on my spoon. "Wh-what???"

He smiles, and leans in closer. "I said, would you be willing to do it again? I liked it so well the first time..."

I simply cannot believe my ears. Not even in my fantasies of him had he ever been so bold. I don't know what to say. "I don't know what to say." I look down at my half-empty bowl. "You were so cold to me for the rest of the night."

He sighs. "I guess... I just didn't know what to make of it. I was trying to act cool, convince myself that it didn't mean anything, but, you know, it... doesn't work like that. Not," he whispers into my ear, "when you love someone anywhere near as much as I love you."

Then, in the corner of the ice cream parlor, right next to the window with 'Sundaes Buy One Get One Free" painted backwards on the inside of the glass, he leans in and kisses me again, and I kiss him back, and his breath tastes of vanilla and chocolate and cherries, and I know that there is no place on earth I'd rather be, nothing on earth I'd rather be doing, than where and what I am at this moment and I hope I will be for all of eternity. I eventually pull away and smile at him, then pick up my spoon again to scoop up some more of my ice cream, but he beats me to it and shoves his spoon in my mouth. I laugh and the ice cream flicks all over Touya and the counter. So, I pick up a napkin and wipe his face clean, and we both laugh, and all the world is so new and bright, I can hardly breathe. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying, and he tries to kiss away my tears but I'm so happy that they just keep on coming. I cry into him as he holds m tight. "I love you, To-ya," I whisper in his ear, "I love you so much."

In the middle of the next kiss, we hear a high-pitched gasp. Breaking quickly apart, we look up. "Oh God," comes Touya's voice. I see only two little pink rollerblades skate out the door, but that's more than enough to tell me what had happened. Sakura saw us.